I have a pretty simple question. This is not meant to alienate anyone, but I’m curious about the answer. If you consider yourself a conservative, and claim government as the enemy, why would you want to be a part of the system?

I’m not quite sure when conservatism became synonymous with spending no money and dismantling government as we know it, but here we are. If you’d like to reform the system in such a way that it better serves people, to make it more efficient, I understand that. That does not, however, mean destroying the Environmental Protection Agency, privatizing all education, and taking a sledgehammer to unions. It doesn’t mean cutting food stamp programs by billions of dollars to starving children and families because Ayn Rand gave you the idea that you could pull yourself up by your bootstraps and, you know, ideologically, it just doesn’t sit well with you that there are people out there “getting handouts”.

Recently, I was attacked by someone as I know as being the kind of person who “loves government”, and who defends its practices. While this is a blanket statement–I don’t support everything the federal government of the United States does–yes, I tend to support government. Since when should that be an insult?

This is a word of warning to the anarchists and the so-called libertarians and all the others who fancy themselves modern day revolutionaries. We live in a country comprised of approximately 320 million people. Among those 320 million, there are varying states of education, income, opportunities, and health conditions. Even from state to state, living conditions vary widely. We live in a patchwork society of diverse demographics, from age to culture to ethnicity.

But more important than even our differences are our connections to one another. Even if you don’t believe in a kumbaya ideal or attach the words “communism” or “socialism” to anything that remotely resembles cooperation, you have to admit that we must interact with one another in society. We merge on the same roads. We go to schools and workplaces with others. We purchase goods and services on a daily basis. These are the basics.

And we all benefit from services provided by the government from traffic lights to mail delivery to public libraries. It was often cited in the direct aftermath of the recent government shutdown that the biggest winners were the National Parks. Even the most self reliant among us love our national parks. And who can resist nature? Thoreau did write about Walden Pond, after all.

Government–from the lowest levels to the highest–has a role to play. This role is a significant one. Whether we’re talking about “entitlement” programs or passing the very laws that enable us to live in a stable society, we need government.

Grover Norquist’s colorful imagery of shrinking government to the point that we can “drown it in the bathtub” is disgusting. I’d really like to see where all these people would be without government services.

You can’t say “hands off my guns” (and my taxes and my religion), and then decide that government overreach is non-existent when it comes to “pension reform” or controlling reproductive choices or shutting down marriage equality or denying atheists and secularists the same respect as religion (often mainstream Christianity) is afforded.

Is that the real aim: to remake society in one’s own image? To so fundamentally alter the landscape of the United States as to comport a self-styled combination of the Bible and the “good old days”? To decry diversity and change and progress? Perhaps the most effective way is to declare the evils of the monstrous government that swallows all of our money, that ever-growing Leviathan run by the evil corporatists and opportunists who work in a place worse than hell. This place–gasp–is called Washington, D.C., and it’s where dreams go to die. Worse yet, it’s where the government bogeymen are killing all of your dreams too.

…Except that many of the government haters work there too. From local governments to state houses, thousands of people who won elections on the idea that government is the root of all evil are reaping its benefits in the form of salaries, health care, jobs, contracts, success, relative levels of fame, and the furtherance of their agendas using the tool that’s supposed to be their kryptonite.

I’m a vegetarian. I hate the entire system that goes into the production of killing animals so that people can eat them. Do I continue to eat meat, and say how horrible the system is? No. If it’s so abhorrent to you, government haters, how can you be a part of it? Are you trying to change it from the inside, out? That begins with a respect for its very existence and the admission that you want to be a part of that system, at the very least. If principle is so important, at least be honest with the public and yourselves.

The recent attempts by authority figures at curtailing individuals’ Facebook activity are disturbing. Two recent examples of such action include attempts by employers to obtain new and prospective employees’ facebook passwords and the order by officials at a Crown Heights, Brooklyn high school that students must cancel their Facebook accounts or suffer expulsion from school (in addition to a $100 fine).

It is a new, more open world in which technology allows activity that hasn’t been regulated. Those who wish to control such activity by members of their groups are playing catch up, trying to exert control over people in a changing world. The advent of Facebook creates a plane in which people can express themselves outside of the controlled environments of school or work. On Facebook, the person is free to be himself or herself without the enforced constraints of these environments, and transcend the identifiers of “student” or “employee”.

Every day, I hear cries of “tyranny” used by people against the power of the federal government, and dismiss them as hyperbole. In the cases of cyber infringement (more of which I’m sure are to come), a smaller private body is trying to get its overarching tentacles into the personal affairs of citizens in the same way that some allege that the federal government tries to control aspects of their lives. I do not consider myself a Libertarian, but something must be said for personal freedom. Let’s be clear: these individuals are not being targeted for engaging in illegal or otherwise criminal behavior. No such invasion of their privacy or usurpation of their autonomy is necessary. Was warrantless wiretapping ok in order to listen in on people’s conversations? Many people thought it was not, and the reason given for such intrusive action was national security. Though “national security” was an ill-fitting, catch all phrase, at least it hinted at the possibility of a real reason. Nothing approaching this scale even comes close to the reasons behind destroying a large part of someone’s autonomy. Again, not hyperbole.

With the number of Facebook profiles approaching the 1 billion mark, Facebook is no mere fluke or fringe movement. It is a worldwide, easily accessible network, which makes it a threat. It is also an extension of ourselves. When the rabbis in charge of the Crown Heights school claim that the world created by the website is “not real”, they display a gross misunderstanding of the technology. Interactions occur through Facebook, but profiles also serve as a conduit for a wide-ranging manner of personal information. It is no wonder each page is called a “profile”. From photo albums which chronicle important life events to the digital recognition of personal milestones to spaces in which everything from niche interests to news stories can be disseminated and connections can be built, Facebook is like the Room of Requirement for any person wishing to use it. Yes, that was a Harry Potter reference. The next thing you know, those frightened, ignorant adults will be trying to ban that book series too. Oh, wait, that’s already happened. Thanks, overzealous Christians who think that the wizards and sorcery in children’s books are the “devil’s work”.

Digressions aside, we live in the 21st century. Such technology cannot and should not be held back because it presents uncertainty for a ruling class in any situation. Employers claim fear of liability if they don’t properly vet employees. Fine, perform background checks. Asking for a Facebook password oversteps any reasonable person’s bounds. Social networking is very new. The Internet is not much older. It is easy to forge these facts because they have become such an integral part of our lives. Because the youth have grown up in the cyber age, we have taken for granted the wonders of the Internet, particularly the freedom and the new degree of interconnectedness it allows us to have. This is all the more reason we should be aware of attempts to chip away aspects of this from us. Anything that upends the status quo is viewed warily by those in positions of power. Facebook is the latest battleground. We must protect our liberty, or someone more powerful will always try to take it away.